Tiripano replaces injured Jarvis

The Zimbabwe national cricket team selectors replaced injured Kyle Jarvis with Donald Tiripano ahead of their second match of the current T-20 triangular series against Australia this morning.

By Kevin Mapasure

Jarvis has been ruled out of the series after he broke his right thumb while fielding in the opening match against Pakistan on Sunday.

Zimbabwe will be looking to bounce back after a 74 run defeat in the first match, but after Australia’s thumping nine-wicket win over Pakistan yesterday, Hamilton Masakadza’s men will be reminded of how tough an assignment they have.Yesterday, Australia were brutal in their approach with both bat and ball, with Billy Stanlake first ripping through the Pakistan top order with four wickets that came at a cost of eight runs in four overs.

Pakistan were taken out for 116 runs in 19.5 overs, with Shabab Khan top scoring with 29 runs, with Andrew Tye too 3-38.

Asif Ali made 22, Faheem Ashraf 21 Shoaib Malik 13 and Hussain Talat were the only other Pakistan batsmen that reached double figures.

With the platform well set, Australia skipper Aaron Finch smashed six maximums and four boundaries, as he made an unbeaten 68 that came off just 33 balls to guide his team to an opening win.

Australia needed just 10.5 overs to reach their target with A’Arcy Short (15) becoming the only Pakistan wicket, while Travis Head (20) partnered Finch to the end.

Masakadza wants to see his team apply themselves better when they take on Australia this morning in the search of a win for the hosts.

“Only bright point was winning the toss,” he observed after Sunday’s match.

“We gave them 20 runs extra. It was not ideal that Jarvis went out injured as well. We started okay but we lost our way in the middle period.

“Our batting order was fine, but the execution was a problem. Just the first game of the series. We don’t need to make changes in the team yet, but we need to apply ourselves better at the top of the order.”

Zimbabwe interim coach Lalchand Rajput will also be seeking an improvement from his charges who were outplayed by Pakistan in all aspects of the game on Sunday.

He will ask for improvement in just about everything, but importantly, he will want to see the team stay in the game much longer than they did in the first encounter.